Originally from Australia, I spent 4 years in Beijing where I was a co-founding member and English Editor of TechNode, one of Asia’s leading independent tech media that now manages TechCrunch China. I covered stories on local entrepreneurs, start-ups and tech trends that shape life in Asia and especially China. After TechNode, I co-founded Koombah.com, an online to offline start-up to help expats find rental housing in Beijing. I started my career in the corporate professional services industry in Sydney, where I worked as an accountant for Ernst & Young and management consultant for various boutique firms across strategy, operations and marketing.

WeChat Is Being Trialled To Make Hospitals More Efficient In China

China’s hospital system is in need of desperate repair. Pent up patient frustration has resulted in violent attacks against medical workers. Last October, one man in Zhejiang province even stabbed a doctor to death.

It is believed that such extreme outbursts are caused by an inequitable public health care system. There is a lack of effective channels for patients to complain about their gripes, doctors over prescribe medicine to make more money and they expect bribes before providing proper treatment or reducing a patient’s waiting time.

A driving force behind this rampant behavior by doctors is their own frustration against their severely low salaries. For all their years of study, tiringly long hours and high-stress work, they only receive about $500-$1,500 per month – comparable to that of a taxi driver.

To curb corruption, some hospitals such as Beijing Friendship are experimenting with reforms that require patients to pay more for doctors but less for medicine, lowering the overall cost.

Now technology in the form of WeChat, is being used to capture efficiency gains in hospitals. Tencent’s WeChat is China’s most popular mobile messaging app that has become a pervasive part of people’s daily lives. Improving efficiency in China’s hospital system is of paramount importance, especially when the top hospitals have to deal with around 10,000 patients everyday. Every minute matters.

From personal experience I know how inefficient hospitals in China are. When I had a skin infection last year, I went to one of the better local hospitals in Beijing. When I arrived I had to line up to buy a blue paper book for US 50 cents that would be used by the doctor to write notes. I then had to join another line to pay roughly US$2 to see a doctor. To see the doctor, I had to go upstairs and take a number and wait for forty minutes to see a doctor who would consult me for two minutes. To see the real doctor, I had to wait again for another half an hour. To collect my prescribed medicine, I went back downstairs to one window. To pay for the medicine I had to line up at another window. I thought it was extremely cheap, until I had to pay for the medicine.

Although a few hospitals across China have already started to take advantage of a WeChat public account to communicate news and updates with patients, YueBei Peoples Hospital in the southern province of Guangdong is the first to allow patients to pay for registration and medicine through WeChat.

In this new trial, the hospital has posted WeChat QR codes around the hospital for patients to connect with its public account – similar to a micro blog. Once connected, patients can view information about specialist doctors, make an appointment and even monitor where they are in the queue. The ability for patients to pre-pay their registration fee and medicine costs through the app (if they have connected their bankcard to WeChat) further accelerates the usual cumbersome experience.

To cater to the elderly or those without the ability to use WeChat, the app allows people who can, to manage the hospital process for others. Additionally, in a positive step towards continuous improvement, after patients have made payments through the app, they are prompted to complete a satisfaction and feedback survey. To educate patients about the benefits of using WeChat, the hospital has set up a dedicated window to consult and advise patients.

With its widespread scale across China, WeChat has become very effective at solving real social problems through offline integration. For example, it’s ‘Order a Taxi’ feature is being extensively used to save time waiting for a taxi. The ubiquitous nature of WeChat is in contrast to competitor apps like Whatsapp that purely focus on the functionality of communication. In this sense, WeChat is proof that China can be a leader of innovation.

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First I would like to make some comments about the writer. He knows a lot about WeChat. Probably he has been using this for a long time. Second he knows China a lot. He understand the culture, the business, and the technology. Only this kind of writers could write some nice comments. I see many China related topics. But many of the writers have never been to China, even once. How could they be expert on China? Just reading is not enough to make you an expert on China. I also read a lot, but never claim myself as an expert for the thing I just read. IF you experience something, then might make some credible comments. Now let us go back to the topic for WeChat. This is a true leader for communication. I started to use it a few months ago, now just couldn’t live without it. It is so powerful and convenient. At the beginning, I didn’t take it seriously. My wife downloaded the application for me and asked me to try. I asked: what is it? Then slowly I was connected to some of my friends. They all share the news with me. I once a while post some family pictures. They all loved it. It is a kind of live communication. Instantly and live communication. You can talk with anybody who is in your group. You could also talk anywhere as long as there is an internet connection available. I am truly amazed by this. It has so many languages available. Not only Chinese any other people could use it. I might predict that someday the whole world will use this communication tool. There is no fee for this. There might be a charge some day in the future. But there might be a waive if only for personal usage. If you want to do some business through WeChat, then there might be a fee associated and you have to pay. That’s normal. If there is no revenue, then the company might not grow and support itself. I don’t mind to pay some fee. Some people might walk away. I remember the Hotmail is also free for a long time and there has never been a fee for this. Why not WeChat? It could do the same thing as Hotmail. China has 1.4 billion people. How big is the number if half of the population are using it? This is a great innovation. Westerners often complain that there is no real innovation in China. Now they will change their minds. This is a innovation, a world class innovation. It is affecting many people’s life. I admire the company created this tool. Tencent is the world’s most admired internet company. It is growing rapidly both in China and oversees. Not sure which direction it might take for its future growth. One thing is for sure that it will lead the whole world for the innovation. It will not disappear. It might just change its model for business. But as long as the great ideas exist in the company, there will always something new coming out.

The WeChat folks are really doing some interesting stuff. Generally speaking, it’s significant how Chinese companies are becoming more and more true innovators and are no longer just copying foreign products…

It is unclear wether this initiative is from Tencent or from this specific hospital. Indeed, there are IT service providers specialized in developing Apps within WeChat for hospitals. More specifically on the review component, one could argue about the limitation of reviews issued on the concerned hospital platform following a transaction with such hospital and so, the lack of independence and consolidation with other hospitals reviews. Newly launched in Shanghai, The CareVoice is the first review-based social platform in healthcare which aims to help people make better decision for their healthcare needs, and to empower professionals to enhance patients’ positive experience, overall contributing to improve quality of care. For more information, www.thecarevoice.com !